Elephants Never Forget

Twenty-five years after Mozambique’s revolution for independence, Abel Coelho returns to his country from his home in Lisbon to revisit the places where he spent his childhood. The war was over, the one-party regime had ceded to a multi-party system, and the country was at peace. The result was this novel, which offers a little known side of post-colonial Mozambique and the civil war between the Frelimo regime and the Renamo resistance. The regime, international interests, Mozambican citizens, and resistance fighters are the protagonists in this historical drama about a contested country.

The novel tells the stories of the people who were subject to the worst violence and humiliation in Mozambique’s re-education camps. It is a tale of survival by men and women who fought for a better country. The main character is Rosa Temba, who owns a vegetable stand in the Maputo market and who is arrested by the secret police. She is sent to the horrors of a re-education camp, where she and her fellow inmates are determined to survive against all odds. Elephants Never Forget celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.